Interesting (to me) observation.

[lumberjack_jeff]

My 270,000 mile truck broke down about seven miles from home after picking my son up from school today.

I called his adult brother to get my work van to tow me home, but while waiting at the side of the road, I worked on it. The entire tool kit in the truck consisted of a 4" crescent wrench and a "scrench"


... and (fortunately) some bandaids.

So it turns out, the problem was a shredded fan belt and some loose stripped bolts holding the fan clutch to the water pump.

Two people stopped to ask if I needed any help. Both of them were young women in their twenties. I am very appreciative that they offered, but I didn't really need anything.

The serpentine belt was separated and shredded, but not broken. I unwrapped the belt from the crankshaft, removed the shredded bits and tightened the stripped fan clutch bolts as tightly as possible with the tiny crescent wrench. I replaced the remaining three ribs of belt using the scrench to relieve the tension on the spring loaded idler pulley (a bit of an ordeal).

I drove it home before my son could find a tow strap to come get me.

The observation? It made me happy that paralyzing fear of strange men isn't universal. Two thoughtful young women stopped to ask if I needed help, and had it not been for the scrench, I would have.

Maybe we're all just people. Sometimes we need help, and other times we have help we could offer.

[applegrove]

1. Remember the ad when it is suggested a broken fan belt could

be replaced by ladies pantyhose? I think God was cosmically giving you the option of using them.

[libodem]

2. yes

Very nice. Hope you are not attacked for your story. Some might not find it fitting for their world view of every male wanting to rape every women they come into contact with.

[Upton]

3. Was it on I-5?

And you mean women, actual women, stopped to help a man without first asking him to show his degree from empathy school?

Nice to know regular people still exist..

[lumberjack_jeff]

4. Very much not.

A country 2-lane through farmland.

Break down on I-5 and it's...



Thank heaven for screnches.

[Warren DeMontague]

5. Yes, but what does Mitt Romney have to do with any of it?

Oh, sorry, I thought you said "The Stench"

[noamnety]

6. The last time someone stopped to help me

it was a young woman who helped me push my car out of the snow in a turnaround.

The last two times I helped someone with car issues, it was men. Both times they were out of gas, I gave one a lift to the gas station and back to his van. The other was a fully loaded pickup that died in an intersection, I jumped off my bike and helped push him through to the gas station at that corner. I was surprised that no drivers in the cars stuck behind him went to help, since they were the ones inconvenienced by it.

(I'm female.)

[Major Nikon]

7. I changed a flat for an elderly lady a few months ago

She didn't seem bothered.

[loli phabay]

8. i get to help stranded motorists a lot in the boonies

Tourists especially think their suv can go up the muddy dirt roads no problem then wamo they get stuck. Then they get pissed when i turn up in my awd ford taurus and they dont understand it takes experience and knowledge even with four wheel drive to negotiate some of these roads. Hate it though when i change a tyre and a perfectly fit guy stands on his cellphone without even trying to help.